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The first particular saith that you shall be obedient: to wit to him and to his commandments whatsoever they be, whether they be made in earnest or in jest, or whether they be orders to do strange things, or whether they be made concerning matters of small import or of great; for all things should be of great import to you, since he that shall be your husband hath bidden you to do them. The second part or particular is to understand that if you have some business to perform concerning which you have not spoken to him that shall be your husband, nor hath he bethought him concerning it, wherefore hath he nothing ordered nor forbidden, if the business be urgent and it behooves to perform it before he that shall be your husband knoweth it, and if you be moved to do after one fashion and you feel that he that shall be your husband would be pleased to do after another fashion, do you act according to the pleasure of your husband that shall be, rather than according to your own, for his pleasure should come before yours. The third particular is to understand that if he that shall be your husband shall forbid you to do anything, whether he forbid you in jest or in earnest or whether it be concerning small matters or great, you must watch that you do not in any manner that which he has forbidden. The fourth particular is that you be not arrogant and that you answer not back your husband that shall be, nor his words, nor contradict what he saith, above all before other people.
Taking the first of the four particulars, which bidder you to be humble and obedient to your husband, the Scripture bids it... That is to say, it is the command of God that wives be subject to their husbands as their lords, for the husband is the head of the wife. (Hal shall 1996). Women, in essence, were to be seen and definitely not heard. The Goodman of Paris is the translation of a tome written by an elderly Parisian man to his young (very young) wife, directing her in wifely things. Much of the text is annotated with comments that indicate the young woman is being told these things in case her husband dies and she must find and keep a new husband.
As we see from the excerpt above, a medieval woman was to do as she was told. Regardless of how heinous the wife might feel the act to be, she must do it, merely because she was told to. Secondly, she must do all acts in ways that pleased her husband, for his pleasure should come before hers. Third, if the husband told the wife not to do something, even in jest, she could not do it. Finally, the wife must never answer back.
Goodman summarized the reasons in the last paragraph of the excerpt: the wife must be humble and obedient to the scriptures because the God commands it. (And God had the final word, after all. )
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